Despite privacy concerns, ‘V2V’ could save lives

If the “live free or die” types are quick to complain about seat restraints and motorcycle helmets, what will they say when their car emphatically warns them not to make that left turn they were set on?

And what will they say when the approaching semi they had failed to notice roars past?

What would politicians and motorists alike say about the possible cost of such mandated warning systems, pegged at $100 or $200?

The U.S. Department of Transportation has signaled its intent to require automakers to include devices in new cars. They would include global positioning satellite receivers to show a vehicle’s precise location, proximity sensors to measure closeness to other vehicles, and receivers and transmitters to communicate the information among nearby vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration believes such communication may prevent 80 percent of collisions not involving mechanical problems or drunk drivers. The agency is about to publish a report with its recommendations, then ask the public for comment before it begins to draft regulations. The process could take a few years.

There are uncertainties and drawbacks.

If installed only in new cars, it will take years before there are enough cars on the road to change V2”is-anyone-out-there?” to V2V. There’s some speculation, though, that smartphones could fill in in the meantime, providing both the GPS and communications capabilities, and adding it to others on our roads, including bicyclists and pedestrians.

The conservative Cato Institute, meanwhile, sees potential privacy concerns and raises another question: Will the reported development of driver-less cars mesh with this seemingly simpler technology?

We can’t begin to answer those questions.

But after a century of relying solely on our own senses to operate a vehicle, we’re quite aware of their limitations, all the more as we see how easily they can be diverted by other inputs inside the vehicle, from food to family to phones.

Driverless cars will take control away from us, and that may be all to the good.

V2V-equipped cars will put control squarely upon us as drivers, amplifying our sensory inputs. And that would be better than what we have at the moment – just ourselves.